Question

What is the greatest integer less than or equal to $\dfrac{3^{100}+2^{100}}{3^{96}+2^{96}}?$

$80$

$81$

$96$

$97$

$625$

Answer: A

Concepts:exponent floor and ceiling functions bounding to limit cases

Difficulty rating: 1540

Solution:

Let $a=3^{96}$ and $b=2^{96}$ . The expression is $\dfrac{81a+16b}{a+b}=16+\dfrac{65a}{a+b}$ , so it is less than $16+65=81$ .

To show the floor is $80$ , we also need the expression to be greater than $80$ . This is equivalent to $81a+16b>80a+80b$ , or $a>64b$ .

Because $\left(\dfrac32\right)^2=\dfrac94>2,$ we have $\dfrac{a}{b}=\left(\dfrac32\right)^{96}>2^{48}>64.$ Hence the expression is greater than $80$ and less than $81.$ Thus, A is the correct answer.

2018 AMC 10A Problem 14

Answer: A

Difficulty rating: 1540

Solution:

Problem 14 in Other Years